When I reviewed theOXS Thunder Litesoundbar a few months ago, I was impressed by a lot, and underwhelmed by a bit. For a budget soundbar, it offered a decent amount of inputs for a relatively small amount of desk real estate, but the sound quality itself came with some caveats.
OXS’ non-budget offering, the Thunder Pro+, does away with poxy things like ‘compromise’. Instead, this absolute beast of a bar is unapologetic in its size, design, and sound quality. Which you’d hope for, really, considering the £600 price tag.
OXS Thunder Pro+ Gaming Soundbar with Wireless Satellite Neck Speaker
Featuring 7.1.2 Channel Dolby Atmos audio, the OXS Thunder Pro+ includes a desktop soundbar and the world’s first wireless satellite neck speaker. With 10 precision-tuned drivers and Dolby’s cutting-edge acoustics, it creates a lifelike 3D soundscape that immerses you in the world of your game, movie, or music. Feel every detail as if you’re truly there.
Like the Thunder Lite, the Elite Pro is meant to be a desktop soundbar for gaming. Perhaps the one disadvantage it has over the Lite is in that its design screams that gamer-focus loud and proud with some curious design choices.
From the smooth curves, exhaust-like speakers, and strong RGB lighting, this thing feels much more like a gamer’s piece of kit than the Thunder Lite’s subtler, minimalistic design. If your setup already looks like the Vegas strip it should add a nice extra bit of flair, but for someone like me who likes to keep distractions to a minimum, the design of the Thunder Pro+ feels a bit unnecessarily showy.
There are an impressive array of inputs; USB-C, HDMI, ARC, Optical, Bluetooth, and even passthrough for headphones and microphones help turn it into an all-in-one solution for whatever device you throw at it. Setup was nice and easy and I had it blaring out Chappell Roan within minutes – even if the extra accessories did take a bit more fiddling to set up.
One odd absence here is the optical cable that comes included with the Lite. It was flimsy rubbish anyway, but it would’ve been nice to be included alongside the HDMI cable that comes in the box.
They were worth it though. The first accessory is simply a control dial, giving you a quick way to control volume and equalisation presets. I do like how it matches the RGB lighting mode the rest of the bar is set to – it gives the whole thing a unified look on top of being an incredibly convenient alternative to faffing with the included remote.
The second accessory is the “world’s first” satellite neck speaker. This neck cushion has a wireless connection to the soundbar via a dongle in the USB-A port, and creates a true surround-sound experience.
At first, I was torn on the neck speaker. Its sound quality is nowhere near as good as the rest of the soundbar’s, and gives music a slightly slushier sound. The battery life is also bad, only lasting a few hours and taking about as long to charge up – which is awkward when you have to either take the cushion off your chair entirely or risk wrenching out your USB cords when the chair gets tangled.
But over time, I’ve grown to love what it adds to the overall sound experience of the Pro+. The latency between it and the bar is minimal, giving an all-enveloping immersive feel to whatever you’re listening to. If you like listening to live music in particular, this is a great way to feel like you’re sat in the room with the musicians. I don’t think I’d be without it now.
As usual, my tests for sound equipment are Left 4 Dead 2 for positional audio, and Go! by the Chemical Brothers, Lone Digger by Caravan Palace, and Simply Beloved from Kingdom Hearts for different sound elements.
That leaves the actual soundbar’s quality itself, and it utterly trounces both the Lite and other soundbars I’ve tested in that regard.
The Best Sound Quality I’ve Ever Experienced
The big improvement over the Lite is the move from just two speakers to a full 7.1 configuration, complete with support for Dolby Atmos. I tend to prefer headphones over speakers for the immersion, but this setup – especially when using the neck pillow – feels like the sound is coming from all around your head, rather than just being blasted at you from the front.
My go-to game for testing this is Left 4 Dead 2, thanks to its reliance on audio cues and positional audio, and it more than delivers. When the servers worked, every Boomer bile and Smoker cough felt like it was really happening in my room, and being able to track enemies with ease through sound alone is always a big advantage.
There are equalisation presets available for both FPS and MOBAs. I’m not sure which one you’d use for Deadlock, seeing as it’s kinda-sorta both?
Audio reproduction on the Pro+ is a treat. As mentioned, the neck speaker can sound a bit smushed, but the bar itself manages to feel clear and crisp at both the high and low tones. Though it lacks a dedicated subwoofer, the bass punches through without overpowering the rest of the sound, and the trebles ring out without any problems.
This bad boy can getloud, with very little in the way of distortion at the higher end. It did throw the Digimon figurines I put on top of it across my desk, but that’s hardly the Pro+’s fault.
At almost £600, the OXS Thunder Pro+ is expensive. Costly. Premium. Pricey. Flippin’ spenny. This is the sort of kit you buy when you’re already a dedicated audiophile looking for your next upgrade, rather than someone just setting up their sound system for the first time.
But what an upgrade it is. Going from a fantastic, but still budget, piece of kit like the Lite to this is like making the jump from 480p to full HD. If you’ve got the cash and want an all-in-one sound solution, this is the bar to beat.
